iMac on its way - many questions - Is it true? Mag. Mouse won't work on Windows?

This will be my first post to all of you, but guaranteed it will be followed by countless others. My iMac 21.5 3.06 GZ 500 MB 4GB (isn't there a simple abbrev. to represent this?) is on it's way and should arrive within a week. Been a PC user since 1981 basically. I intend, at least for awhile, to occasionally use my Win. pgrms. as needed. I just happen to read a post here that mentioned his mag. mouse does NOT work when he is using Windows. Is that true? If so, what does that mean I have to do when using Windows? Unplug/plug? I currently am using a wireless MS mouse. My PC 40 GB HD (isn't that embarrassing, yet only 4.5 yrs. old!) is completely full with dire, every-15-min. warnings that my HD space is critically low (128 MG space left). Oy. Anyway, here's a couple of beg. questions in addition to the mag. mouse issue.

I never learned the "technical" stuff - just enough to get by with lots of emails w/photo attachments, Word, ACDCPro for photo org. and manip., and "fun" stuff - cards & graphics, labels, etc. A tremendous am't of web browsing/searching, too. I have the last 5 yrs. of my emails on my HD (Mozilla Thunderbird) and several prgms. which I only occasionally use but don't want to give up. I bought a WD Elements ext. HD - 1 TB - before realizing I really needed to just get a new computer, so I do still have it. HOW can I start moving all my PC stuff to this HD? What should I do FIRST (NOW) in anticipation of rec'g my iMac quite soon so I can hook 'er up, Sonny, and start using it while still being able to immed. receive and read my incoming emails? I mean, PHYSICALLY, what should I start doing NOW so I don't sit when it's here and not know where to start. I guess my biggest fear at the moment is not being able to access my email once I disconnect my PC and switch over. My two very busy sons live quite a distance and I know it will be awhile bef. they can come and help out (both PC users but recommending I get the iMac) so I'm hoping bet. you and AppleCare (3 yrs. cov'g - they won't make money on me!!) I can get going on the basics right away. Just pulling that PC plug scares me to death. BTW, we do have a wireless router in my "home office" here. Won't I have to transfer over all the AV prgms. to the HD, too, since I will still be using the Windows stuff sometimes? And, does all Windows stuff go on the external HD or can I, hopefully, put a lot on the iMac HD? Oh, so sorry for all these questions!! And thank you so much in advance. :Oops:

You really need to take care of that before you corrupt the directory and lose data.

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I never learned the "technical" stuff - just enough to get by with lots of emails w/photo attachments, Word, ACDCPro for photo org. and manip.

:)

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and "fun" stuff - cards & graphics, labels, etc. A tremendous am't of web browsing/searching, too. I have the last 5 yrs. of my emails on my HD (Mozilla Thunderbird) and several prgms. which I only occasionally use but don't want to give up.

Sounds good. You can continue to use Thunderbird on the Mac, but I do actually suggest Mail (the default program) -- it's better in some ways, but of course that's a matter of personal taste, so try em both if possible and make up your own mind.

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I bought a WD Elements ext. HD - 1 TB - before realizing I really needed to just get a new computer, so I do still have it. HOW can I start moving all my PC stuff to this HD?

Yes. If the WD drive is formatted FAT32, leave it that way. If its formatted NTFS, that's fine too, but the Mac can only read FROM it, not write TO it. If the purpose here is to transfer your stuff from the PC to the Mac, that will work fine and you can reformat the drive to Mac format (HFS) once you've safely copied things over.

When I say "things" I mean "your personal files/pics/movies/music" that sort of thing. Apps will generally not "just copy over" and don't run on the Mac anyway. If you find that you really do have to continue to use a few Win programs, you'll need to set up a Windows partition (or "file partition" as used by virtualisers like Parallels and VMWare et al) and reinstall those apps from the original disk.

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What should I do FIRST (NOW) in anticipation of rec'g my iMac quite soon so I can hook 'er up, Sonny, and start using it while still being able to immed. receive and read my incoming emails?

Nothing in particular. You should copy the My Pictures, My Music, My Movies etc folders to the external, backup your email file and bookmarks and other documents. That's about it.

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I guess my biggest fear at the moment is not being able to access my email once I disconnect my PC and switch over.

No worries. Most people's email sits on a server somewhere, so Mail (or Thunderbird) should be able to pick up right where you left off once you've fed it your POP/SMTP (or IMAP if you use that) info. Both Mail and Thunderbird can also "import" your older mail that the server may not have at your leisure.

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My two very busy sons live quite a distance and I know it will be awhile bef. they can come and help out (both PC users but recommending I get the iMac) so I'm hoping bet. you and AppleCare (3 yrs. cov'g - they won't make money on me!!) I can get going on the basics right away.

LOL. Smart kids (but not smart enough -- once they see how much fun you're having I predict they'll add a Mac to their arsenals as well)!

I think you'll find the Mac "community" very welcoming and friendly on the whole, and your phone support via AppleCare should also be useful. I'm not a big fan of phone support (takes too long for me, even when you get a "good" person as you likely will), but Apple's is consistently rated the best in the biz.

It's a pity they don't have Macs themselves, as they could use the built-in "screen sharing" feature to help you with questions (but actually you'll probably end up helping THEM this way eventually!).

Until the machine gets here, I have a couple of suggestions for you:

Switch101 - aimed at Windows switchers like yourselfMac101 - general lessons about the "Macintosh Way."iLife - loads of cool video tutorials to show you the great software that comes on your Mac!

Enjoy, and we hope to see you around here a lot!

TechieJustin

03-10-2010 01:38 AM

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Oh yeah...
I have an iMac on the way too. Used... 17", 2.0Ghz C2D, 2GB of ram, 250GB hard drive for $500. I have been watching similar imacs for the past month and I kept getting outbid. A similar model with a 160GB hard drive just went for $680.
I think I lucked out!

Newbie2mac

03-11-2010 09:08 PM

Chas: Thank you for taking soooo much time to ans. some of my questions! I WILL try the Mail pgrm. first bef. assuming that I won't like it; I promise.

How do I KNOW if the WD HD is already formatted with Fat32 or NTFS?

"You should copy the My Pictures, My Music, My Movies etc folders to the external, backup your email file and bookmarks and other documents. That's about it."
Since you say to backup my email - wouldn't I do that by transf. all that to the new ext. HD, by copying it over to it, just the same as you said to copy over those pic folders, etc. onto the ext? I.E., what's the diff., if any, bet. backing up the email, bookmarks, etc. or copying it to the ext.? Just asking ...;P

chas_m

03-11-2010 10:20 PM

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Originally Posted by Newbie2mac
(Post 1016284)

How do I KNOW if the WD HD is already formatted with Fat32 or NTFS?

To the best of my knowledge, only the WD "Studio" line is preformatted HFS (Mac OS X). All others are preformatted FAT32 as the "lowest common denominator."

I.E., what's the diff., if any, bet. backing up the email, bookmarks, etc. or copying it to the ext.? Just asking ...;P[/QUOTE]

Nothing. I just don't know where a PC stores its mail and bookmarks. :)

dtravis7

03-11-2010 10:38 PM

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Originally Posted by chas_m
(Post 1016345)

Nothing. I just don't know where a PC stores its mail and bookmarks. :)

If it's XP, everything is inside Documents And Settings and the username of the computer. Then it's inside there somewhere! :D

What version of Windows is on the old machine?

Newbie2mac

03-12-2010 03:45 PM

Good guess: I'm runniing XP. And DREADING this transfer over with my sons not planning on coming down too soon so I'm gonna be on my own + AppleCare, who will shortly start claiming they "can't hear me - bad connection" once all the calls start. It's arriving this Monday - whoopee.

URGENT:
BTW, if anyone's still reading this & knows, what info do I need to know (I'll get by calling my sons ahead of time, when they're more reachable this weekend) to effect the iMac install on Monday? IP address? Router nbrs? email server something or other? Any other prompts that the iMac will ask me? 'Cuz I don't have a clue!! They've always done the set ups for me. I warned you: I'm quite green about the details. And I just HAVE to have access to my email asap or I'll go into withdrawals. (I use Mozilla Thunderbird.)

Nethfel

03-12-2010 04:07 PM

For the base setup of the Mac, it won't ask anything too difficult - If you're going wired for network access to your router, and your router supplies an IP address via DHCP (which is the default setting in many cases) the Mac should get an IP address then it will go thru a registration phase where it will ask for some specific info from you (name, address, email address, phone number, where and how you plan to use your mac, if you want to activate and use MobileMe).

But incase it doesn't and/or you want to link in through wireless - you'll need the wireless passphrase
If you statically assign IP addresses (which isn't as common in home networks, unless being configured and used by advanced users), you'll need: IP address, netmask, gateway, DNS server - this applies to either wifi or wired.
To setup your email you'll need: Your email address, your email username (some email server just use a short user name (usually the part before the @ symbol in your email address), others use a full email address as the username), your email password (this is important), email server addresses (ie: smtp.youremail.com, pop.youremail.com, also important) and whether your inbound email users pop or imap.

Once you're into the OS itself and you have your basic network settings configured you should be good to go for most things. there are directions if you search google for importing email from thunderbird into Mail on Mac if you need to transfer your email (if I recall from back when I switched, it's less painful to migrate email from thunderbird to mail then it is from outlook or outlook express to mail (which is what I had to do)).

Overall, it may sound hard, but it's really easy and you should be going in no time.

chas_m

03-12-2010 07:22 PM

For the most part, Nethfel has actually given you a MORE detailed version of what you'll need that you most likely will actually need.

If your computer connects to the internet via an ethernet cable, then you would probably want to power-down your modem and your router, connect the Mac to it, and then power up the modem, then the router, then the Mac. It should find everything automatically.

For wireless, it's even easier. The setup routine you'll go through automatically when you turn on your computer will detect local wireless networks, offer you the choice to connect to one of them, and ask you for the password (if there is one). That's it.

For your email, Apple's Mail "setup wizard" is already familiar with all the major email providers (GMail, Yahoo, AOL, Earthlink et al) and will figure out the POP/SMTP or IMAP settings by itself if you use one of those services. Otherwise, you will need your POP/SMTP or IMAP settings, which you can find on the support page of your ISP's home page (or just google "[provider] email settings"). And of course your username and password as Nethfel mentioned.